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MARQUETTE — They’re on the road again, and they won’t be reappearing in Marquette until the calendar flips to December.

The Northern Michigan University hockey team enjoyed a stretch playing seven of their last eight games at the Berry Events Center in Marquette, but now hit the road for a pair of CCHA series with an off weekend near Thanksgiving between them.

The Wildcats won’t return home until they host Ferris State on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 6-7, with several Christmas promotions included — the annual teddy bear toss on the first night and sock toss and postgame Skate With the ‘Cats on night two.

Northern Michigan University’s Wolfgang Govedaris, center, takes a shot in the third period of a CCHA hockey game played against Lake Superior State at the Berry Events Center in Marquette last Friday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

That series is actually NMU’s only home games left in 2024.

This weekend, the road trip begins at nationally ranked No. 16 Minnesota State-Mankato in Mankato, Minnesota. It will continue on Nov. 29-30 against CCHA newcomer Augustana in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

“Every game is going to be a challenge, and we have to be at our best and learn from it,” Northern head coach Dave Shyiak said in his weekly press conference as relayed in a series preview from NMU Sports Information. “Now we go on the road against a tough opponent.

“We need all of our guys playing their ‘A’ or ‘B’ game and we have to be good on special teams and goaltending. If we do that, we have a chance to win.”

NMU comes in as a decided underdog against Mankato at 1-9 overall and 0-4 in the CCHA, while the Mavericks stand at 7-4-1 and 2-1-1 for games that start at 8:07 p.m. EST today and 7:07 p.m. Saturday.

They will be broadcast on radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point, while fans can also follow streaming coverage on Midco Sports Plus, or follow @NMUHockey on X (formerly Twitter) for updates leading up to the games and while the ‘Cats are on the ice.

And finally, you can visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the hockey schedule for links to live video, live audio, live statistics, a preview and a series history.

Last weekend at home, the Wildcats lost to Lake Superior State 5-0 and 5-1 to start the annual Cappo Cup series that will finish in Sault Ste. Marie in early February.

Despite being outscored 10-1, Shyiak was optimistic.

“The first night … as oddly as this will sound, I thought could have been 5-0 the other way,” said the first-year head coach who played on NMU’s 1991 national championship team. “They won on their special teams and then we got out-goaltended.

“For the first time this year we outchanced a team, we outshot a team, we won the faceoff dot, and I think the grade-A scoring chances after two periods were 19-9 (for) us, we just weren’t able to capitalize.”

In the opener, the Lakers took advantage of special teams opportunities, going 4 of 6 on the power play with only the first goal scored even strength. Prior to that game, Northern had only allowed a total of four goals while shorthanded all season.

LSSU was also 4 of 4 on the penalty kill against the Wildcats that night, then 2 of 2 killing penalties on Saturday to maintain its national-best penalty kill, not having allowed a power play goal in its opening eight games in 32 chances.

The Wildcats ran into a hot netminder in Rorke Applebee, who earned CCHA honors as Goaltender of the Week after making 62 saves in the series. NMU generated the most offense they’ve seen in a two-game weekend, with the team having a combined 6.22 expected goals-for in the two games, according to CollegeHockeyNews.

“I’ve been saying all year long, it’s about the process, not the results, and for us the first time outshooting and outchancing a team is a positive,” Shyiak said. “(So far this season) our (penalty kill) and goaltending has been good, but that night they were off, and when you’re off that much and teams capitalize, then you aren’t going to win too many games.”

After taking an early 1-0 lead Saturday on a goal by Zach Michaelis, the Wildcats relinquished two late goals in the final handful of minutes of the first period before ultimately losing.

“I think what happened there is an experienced team finds a way to extend the lead, but instead the Lakers score two in the final three minutes,” Shyiak said. “You want to go into the first period (intermission) feeling good about your lead; unfortunately that didn’t happen for us, and then they were opportunistic in scoring their goals.”

Not finding the scoresheet often has been a challenge this season.

“(We’re) a young team, and we’re putting a lot of guys into scoring roles where they may not be quite ready for,” the NMU coach said. “If you have an older team, those guys help you navigate through the rough waters…. That’s the essence of this team, given the circumstances of what happened over the summer.”

He was alluding to him having to assemble a roster of 28 players with only four having played for Northern last season.

“We continue to get better and take steps forward, and the guys love it (at Northern) and love coming to work every day,” Shyiak said. “Are they disappointed (that) we could have won a game or two? Yes, but that’s a part of maturing as a team and the growing pains for sure.”

Here are some statistics about the Wildcats as gleaned by NMU SI:

• Northern sits atop the nation with 191 blocked shots;

• Goaltender Ryan Ouellette ranks second in the CCHA with 301 saves and is third with his .920 saves percentage among goalies with nine or more games;

• Grayden Slipec ranks second in the CCHA and 18th in the nation with two power play goals;

• NMU is second in the CCHA with its .515 faceoff win percentage;

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Billy Renfrew leads the Wildcats with 84 faceoff wins, also ranking seventh in the CCHA; Jesse Tucker’s 78 and Jakub Altrichter’s 75 are right alongside Renfrew, ranking them ninth and 10th in the CCHA, respectively.

Minnesota State split with Bemidji State and earned a win and tie vs. St. Thomas to open its CCHA season the past two weekends.

Brian Carrabes and Rhett Pitlick lead the Mavericks with 10 points apiece. Josh Groll has nine points, while Adam Eisele has eight.

The Mavericks have a stout defense with a conference-best 1.67 goals against average. Goalie Alex Tracy has been an integral part of that, starting all 12 games. He ranks second in the CCHA with a .943 saves percentage and 1.50 goals-against average, while he is third with 299 saves.

The Mavericks also rank third in the league with 160 blocked shots. Mason Wheeler leads the defense with 20 blocks, while Luke Ashton and Jordan Power have 17 each.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.